Look How Far We've Come: Changes in Court Reporting Technology
Have you ever wanted to be a fly on the wall? Two members of the Technology Evaluation Committee, Marybeth Everhart, RPR, CRI, and Bill Weber, RDR, CRR, had a conversation about how technology has changed in the profession of court reporting. Keep reading and get an insider's look at a first-hand account of how technology has evolved for the court reporting profession.
So, what's next?
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Tech News
Court Scanning Software Blamed for Data Breach
Scanning software used by the Sacramento County Superior Court caused a security breach by exposing confidential documents to the public. The exposure occurred when the court's local scanning application failed to communicate with an update of the statewide Court Case Management System. At the time that the article was published, the court did not know which confidential records had been viewed by the public.
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Copy Machines Not Confidential
Are offices and consumers aware of the secrets that the company copying machine could be holding? Most digital copiers built after 2002 contain a hard drive that stores a copy of "every document copied, scanned, or e-mailed by the machine." This security risk continues to be a problem as most consumers are not aware of it and some businesses are unwilling to incur the expenses associated with remedying the problem.
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El Paso Court Loses Recordings
One family in El Paso, Colo., is experiencing major headaches with their case against their homeowners association. Their case, along with nearly 90 other cases, was not recorded by the digital recording equipment in the El Paso County Courthouse. It appears that a judge pressed the mute button, and court clerks failed to check the recording device. Court clerks are now required to check the recording equipment twice a day.
(Note: In the original Tech Tracker, NCRA incorrectly attributed this article to El Paso, Texas)
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Technology Benefits New York Courts
In the case of Golden Gate Yacht Club v. Societe Nautique de Geneve, New York courts had to act on issues related to the America's Cup. The ruling on this international competition attracted worldwide interest, and thanks to the New York Unified eTrack System, observers around the world could get up-to-the-minute updates on the proceedings. The system "allows attorneys, litigants, and, indeed, any interested person to sign up for automatic updates in as many cases as they wish."
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Google Building Speech Capabilities for Browsers
Google is in the process of developing "voice recognition and text-to-speech capabilities for mobile and desktop browsers." The company hopes that this technology will become a web standard that can be used by any browser. In addition, the company hopes that the technology will lead to "a whole new class of applications."
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Filing Civil Proceedings on YouTube
A Louisiana lawyer is utilizing YouTube in a unique way. John Denenea filed a pleading electronically and included a hyperlink to clips of the related deposition that he had posted on YouTube. While there are many potential positives associated with this novel strategy, the article also runs down the potential negatives of his approach.
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Hands-on with Microsoft's Translating Telephone
Microsoft's new technology "combines speech recognition, machine translation, and speech-to-text technology" to enable two people who do not speak the same language to engage in a telephone conversation. While the translation is not perfect, the telephone does allow users to get the gist of the conversation. The article includes a video so readers can view the demo in which the author participated.
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Lawyer Entrepreneur Launches Groupon-Type Web Site for Attorneys
Steven Choi, an Oakland, Calif., attorney, has created a new networking site for attorneys. The new site aims to save attorneys money by following a model similar to the site Groupon where buyers receive discounts if enough people come together to make a group purchase. Vendors offering legal services on the site include process servers and court reporters.
For more information, click here.
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Vendor News
The Tech Tracker electronic newsletter provides newsworthy information on reporter-related products and technologies. This newsletter is for our readers to use in their research. NCRA does not endorse, or critically review, these products and services in any way. .....................................................................................................
StenoCentral Offers Free Webinar
StenoCentral will be offering a free webinar on Tuesday, June 22, at 9 p.m. EDT. The webinar will be hosted by Melissa Hirsch of StenoCentral, a web-based business application that can find and staff jobs with relevance and efficiency. Freelance court reporters can save time and make more money coordinating their calendars across one agency or multiple agencies by having visibility to relevant job opportunities based on their skills and coverage area.
For a more detailed look at this product, check out their video on YouTube.
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NCRA's Tech Tracker is a service to NCRA members and provides a digest of recent news items relevant to the profession. The views expressed in the cited articles are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of NCRA.